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This is How Moral Relativism is Winning – and Evangelicalism is Losing

Oct 9, 2016

Biblical Christians rightly affirm universal truth and absolute morality, while decrying the rise of moral relativism. We see the enemies of the faith – angry atheists, secular humanists, political lefties – constantly pushing moral relativism, insisting that there are no universal moral laws we all are subject to.

But let me tell you something: evangelicals can relax about what our enemies are up to, since we seem to be doing a great job of destroying the faith from within as we also shill for moral relativism in so many different ways. This has been going on for quite some time now.

The religious left has certainly been at this game, championing the immoral causes of the secular left, whether it is homosexual marriage or abortion on demand. They have trashed the faith as they have fully embraced moral relativism.

But sadly plenty of conservative evangelicals are doing the exact same thing. This has been abundantly clear this year as so many evangelicals have made Donald Trump their human messiah to be defended at all costs. I have interacted with hundreds of these folks this year, and it has been one of the most painful and grievous experiences of my entire Christian life.

Everything Scripture has to say about such matters seems to be thrown out the window as the only thing that really matters for these evangelical Trumpites is getting Donald in and keeping Hillary out of the White House. That really does seem to be their driving passion in life, and it seems that everything is morally permissible to attain this end.

The means can be as questionable as all get out, but it doesn’t matter: Donald must win, or else. Thus ‘the end justifies the means’ has now become for millions of evangelicals the new standard of Christian morality. It is how they do Christianity now. It seems for many, “For me to live is Trump and to die is gain” has become the new Christian credo to live and die for.

And yes it really is that bad. I have experienced this first hand many hundreds of times now. It breaks my heart as it must break the heart of God. It is nothing more than sinful idolatry, and it must be repented of. And the perfect example of this has just occurred this weekend when yet another damning revelation emerged of just what a vile, despicable, immoral lout Trump is.

In case you are not up on the latest, he said such edifying gems as this:Trump: “I DID TRY AND F**K HER.”Trump: “GRAB THEM BY THE P***Y.”Trump: “I JUST START KISSING THEM. IT’S LIKE A MAGNET. JUST KISS. I DON’T EVEN WAIT.”Trump: “I MOVED ON HER LIKE A B***H, BUT I COULDN’T GET THERE.”Trump: “SHE’S NOW GOT THE BIG PHONY T**S.”

Yet once again – incredibly – so many of these evangelicals have rushed to his defence. I have dealt with many dozens of such folks in just the past 24 hours. They will actually make excuses for sin, seek to cover it up, water it down, justify it, make it seem OK, and insist it really is no big deal. These are evangelicals we are talking about here, not immoral or amoral atheists!

“Oh it was just some boys’ talk.” “All men talk this way.” “It happened a while ago.” “It is not so bad.” Yes I have actually heard Christians say all this and more. On and on the excuse making machine goes. And this is being done in three main ways which I have seen so often now that it really makes me ill. They are: “Yes but…,” “No one’s perfect,” and “You are a perfectionist.” Let me examine each of these.

“Yes but…”

Yes he is crude and rude, but….Yes he had the morals of an alley cat, but…Yes he is not quite my cup of tea, but…Yes he has pretty reprehensible character, but…Yes he is no saint, but…

And the second half of these lousy excuses is always this: “But Hillary is worse.” Or, “But Hillary will attack the church.” Or “But Hillary will make bad SCOTUS appointees” etc. etc. Um, since when have biblical Christians decided that it is now perfectly OK to excuse and justify the gross immorality and sins of one person simply because another person is also guilty of such things?

Is that the depths that evangelicals are now descending to? Defending reprehensible filth and perversion because all that matters is keeping Hillary out of the White House? So that is now the sum total of Christian ethics and morality? Whatever it takes to keep her out is the summum bonum of biblical morality and Scriptural truth?

This my friends is nothing other than moral relativism: the very thing we claim to detest in the enemies of the faith. But now it is just fine? Really? As long as Trump wins, everything is of secondary concern?

These defenders of Trump insist that a Hillary win will mean a real assault on Christianity and will prevent us from freely speaking about Christ. Um, earth calling the Trumpites. Trump already is gagging all Christian voices by trashing the Christian faith as countless gullible and undiscerning believers throw all their support and faith in this immoral lefty pagan.

Sorry, that is doing far more damage to the faith than anything Hillary might do. Evangelicals who have become blatant moral relativists have already taken a sledge hammer to the church. Pagans like Hillary can just sit back and watch as we do the demolition job ourselves.

“No one’s perfect”

I have lost count of the number of times I have had this idiotic excuse thrown at me. Why not try telling me something I don’t know? Of course no one is perfect. That is completely beside the point. The issue is, does character, integrity, decency and righteousness count for anything these days, especially when it comes to leaders and the fate of our nation?

It did matter 100 per cent for the American Founding Fathers. But for millions of American evangelicals, the only thing that matters is winning, and everything else is just a distraction. Trump must get in, and whatever it takes to make this happen is now the moral thing to do. Hmm, sounds just like Marxist morality to me: whatever it takes to accomplish our goals is moral. Anything that prevents this is immoral.

Oh, and I thought Jesus actually told us to be perfect as his father in heaven is. I guess these same evangelicals would deride and mock Jesus as well for such impractical idealism. “Let’s get real Jesus – we have to make America great again, so we don’t have time for all these lofty and unhelpful principles and stuff.”

This my friends is nothing other than moral relativism.

“You are a perfectionist”

I have seen so many of these evangelicals savagely smear and vilify Christians who refuse to join the Trump cult. They viciously attack committed, principled Christians who stand on the word of God and their biblically informed conscience, smearing them as being hung up on “principles” and being “perfectionists,” wanting a Sunday School teacher – or Jesus – in the White House, etc.

No I do not want or expect Jesus to run for POTUS. But I do expect a candidate put up by the GOP to actually be a Republican, a conservative, and have some basic values and principles. If any trailer park trash will do, because winning is all that matters, then we have sold our souls to the devil for a batch of humanistic porridge. And then conservatism has died as well as our Christian witness.

And that my friends is moral relativism.

These “Christians” who are still vigorously defending what this immoral pagan says and does are doing far more damage to Christianity than Hillary ever will. They are dragging the name of our Lord and his holy reputation through the dirt. No Christian should ever be guilty of doing that.

This my friends is moral relativism, and these evangelicals need to repent. And they need to repent of their gross hypocrisy as well. If a Democrat was found guilty of such perverted filth, evangelicals would rightly howl him down, saying no true Christian could ever support such an immoral sleazeball.

But when Trump does the very same sorts of things we detested and condemned in Bill Clinton, they not only defend him and demand that we still vote for him, but they make appalling excuses for his sin and shout down genuinely concerned believers.

This my friends is moral relativism, and this is why the church is losing big time in America and in the West.

As usual Matt Walsh has far more biblical wisdom and common sense on all this than millions of deceived evangelicals who no longer can think straight or act morally. What he said this weekend echoes my sentiments exactly:

Don’t defend Trump on this one, guys. Please don’t do it. Whether you’ll vote for him or not, please don’t debase and discredit yourself by defending a dirtbag who bragged about sexually assaulting women. Don’t. Just don’t. It’s not worth it.And yes, it’s sexual assault. In the tapes from 2005 (he was sixty at the time — not 15) he talks about being able to “do whatever he wants” to women because he’s famous. He said he tried to “f*ck” a married woman but she shut him down. Then he said he can kiss women or “grab ’em in the p*ssy” and they’ll let him do it because he’s “a star.”Yeah, Bill Clinton is just as bad. Yeah, Hillary is still terrible. Yeah, sure, but so what? The badness of someone else doesn’t make the badness of Trump less bad. And it certainly doesn’t excuse us in DEFENDING the badness.This was my fear all along. This is why I opposed Trump. This is what I’ve been saying for over a year now. Trump will lose in a landslide and take down the whole movement with him. He’ll take it down because so many of its members are sacrificing the integrity and credibility of conservatism for Trump’s sake.And it will only get worse from here. They have more dirt on Trump. Worse dirt. Get ready. It will all bubble to the surface now. Already I’ve read that a former Miss Utah is prepared to go on the record about being sexually assaulted by Trump. It’s all coming out. Everything. Just like I said it would. Just like so many of us said it would back when we tried to warn against nominating Trump. Nobody listened. And here we are.The Trump campaign is coming apart. There’s probably no way to stop it. But all I ask is that you — I mean my reader, who I respect and appreciate — please don’t lower yourself for this man’s sake. Vote how you see fit, but don’t start telling us that it’s not so bad for a married 60 year old man to brag about grabbing random women in the crotch. It’s not OK. And it doesn’t suddenly become OK because a Republican did it.We aren’t moral relativists. Or we shouldn’t be. But what grieves me so much is that Trump has turned so many of us into that.

I am not a moral relativist. I cannot be, since I am a biblical Christian. But it seems millions of evangelicals have been willing to trash moral absolutes and universal truth as they shill for this human wrecking ball. They will not only cause Hillary to easily get into the White House, but far worse, they have dishonoured their Lord and brought shame on the cause of Christ.

[1958 words]

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31 Responses to This is How Moral Relativism is Winning – and Evangelicalism is Losing

I’m really glad I am not an American and so don’t have to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It really is a case of really bad and even worse. As you know, we had a similar choice in our last election, and people who felt they could not vote for either Liberals (under Malcolm Turnbull) or Labor (under Bill Shorten) voted in their droves for other candidates and the Libs got in with only a one seat majority in the lower house. You don’t appear to have anyone else with their hand up to be the next POTUS, and therefore it is difficult to know whether to even vote or not.
I know that the new ‘progressives’ have infiltrated our Churches, and it causes many of pain. Only a couple off weeks ago, I was speaking to one of our members (Baptist) about SSM,, and his comment was “It will come regardless, because even conservatives want it” I almost cried!
God bless you and don’t let those people who are succumbing to the Devil himself worry you – just keep on praying for them.
God bless
Joan

Hillary winning could be much better for the faith of Americans as it might just bring them back to basics & shake them out of moral relativism. God has in times past effectively used oppression to purify the church & bring His people back to Him, trusting Him alone, not leaders or structures.

Thanks Somerset. Yes there is a lot of bizarre and just plain unbiblical thinking by the evangelical Trumpites about these matters. They seek to grasp at anything – ANYTHING – to push people into voting for this fraud. So they use the fear of persecution as just one lousy reason. Of course we are not told to seek out or pray for persecution, and religious liberty is a great gift. But neither is persecution something to be avoided at all costs as if it is the greatest evil there is. The greatest evil is to not glorify, love and obey God. And all that can be – and is – done by millions of Christians right now who are undergoing persecution, and who have over the centuries. Indeed, the church often thrives and flourishes the most while under persecution. Again, we should work for religious liberty, but it is not an absolute to elevate above everything else.

And the bizarre thing about all this is that this idolatrous and fleshly support and worship of Trump will actually cause much greater destruction of the church in America than anything Hillary might do. We are seeing it already as millions sell their souls to shill for this pagan. A tsunami of moral relativism in our churches will render them totally ineffective for our Lord just as much as anything Hillary might do with SCOTUS appointees, etc.

Thanks Lachlan. But no, I don’t think he makes a good point. I have already penned dozens of articles explaining why, including in my piece above. Making excuses for sin and reverting to moral relativism is not how Christians should operate. We are called to something higher than mere political expediency. A Trump White House will be every bit as disastrous for America and the American church as a Hillary White House will be. I will not shill for lung cancer just because I so dislike bowel cancer.

The American people have a chance to vote for a third-party candidate. But, most people are afraid to “think outside the box”. They feel they only have a choice between two very untrustworthy candidates. So the American people will seal their fate because they are walking blind — slaves to their own sins. God has simply blinded them, I believe.

God is seems to be paving the way to bring the American people to their knees again, and remember Him. Isn’t that how it has always been through the whole of Biblical history, when His people went astray? This is the only reason I can see for such poor choices by the American people.

Thank you for saying so. I suspect there are more worldly principles in operation by evangelicals, too, such as the assumption that what you feel is the ultimate measure of morality. I have heard some say outright that their emotions “guard” them from adopting “harsh” doctrines. In other words, their feelings are more authoritative than God’s word, and they go an easy route rather than seek to understand how God’s commands are kind in the long run. The short cut once you are in this kind of habit is to be swept away by feelings without applying the mind to moral evaluation according to biblical principles. You’re passionate about Trump? Then Trump is everything. Biblical thinking about him is therefore wrong.

By the way, any who believe Trump will safeguard religious freedom … I don’t think they’ve been paying attention to the double talk and the expressions of Trump’s own values in the LGBT realm and the absence of his tiniest acknowledgment of where the war against religious freedom is prevailing in this country. This kind of dedication to a mere chance that he might possibly accidentally fight the senate to appoint justices who understand the times and will rule according to the highest law of the land … they’ve picked the wrong guy for that strength of character. And they’re not giving discussion time to the kind of senate we need to elect should this accident blessedly materialize and he present lawful judges for their approval.

Read Proverbs and explain how there is a chance catastrophe will not result from hiring this sort of man. They destroyed religious freedom when they picked him. It’s already done. Time to study the Word to prepare to suffer well.

My suspicion as well is that all these things are so because there aren’t that many Christians in evangelicalism. I John as I understand it indicates people who hate God’s commandments do not know Him.

Bill, you said “Indeed, the church often thrives and flourishes the most while under persecution. Again, we should work for religious liberty, but it is not an absolute to elevate above everything else.”

I am church hunting at the moment because the one I have just left turned out to be sandpit Sally and frivolous Fred.

I have looked up numerous websites and the standard offering is we do this and we do that we believe this and we believe that; join us you will have a great time. Oh so shallow and so trivial. As if Christianity was all about having a good time. In Acts, it says they rejoiced because they were considered worthy to suffer for Christ sake.

It reminds me of a USA website I came across advertising jobs for pastors. There were 263 vacancies and only THREE wanted a pastor with a serious prayer life. All the others wanted three qualifications. A degree; the ability to make things happen; experience. Probably why Barna research threw up that the prayer life of the average pastor was five minutes a day as he is too busy doing things.

How is it I can work out that we reap what we sow and the church can’t? If we sow shallowness we will reap shallowness. If we sow warriors we shall reap warriors. If we sow Christianity with backbone we will reap Christians with backbone prepared to pay the price.

If indeed suffering is the only thing that will bring out character and strength and it looks as though it is, bring it on and we can kiss sandpit Sally and frivolous Fred in the church goodbye.

You have said everything very well, Bill. As I recall, several years ago the same sort of evangelicals were heralding George W. Bush as the spiritual leader of America and idolizing him in much the same way. Even when he stole the Presidential election from Al Gore, a professing Christian with a sincere concern for the environment and mankind, these so-called evangelicals wanted to believe the theft was “right” because Mr. Bush, the so-called spiritual leader of America, “just had to win.” Whatever happened to faith, the role of prayer, and the concern for God’s will to be done??? This “victory” on the part of George W. Bush and his Republican party made most American citizens the losers because the Middle Eastern wars and the ruination of the economy were caused by the Bush administration. No matter how disastrous the results, these evangelicals wanted to justify anything and everything President Bush did in their quest to make the end justify the means — a truly communistic belief. Now the same pattern is evident among the followers of Mr. Trump, and It is high time the onlookers opened their eyes and admitted the idolatry and selfishness in which they are involved.

Bill, the obvious pain expressed in your article has touched me deeply as have the replies by the respondents. In the light of the 2nd Presidential debate, I reflected on the comments by two great Christian writers. St. Augustine, when on hearing in A.D. 410 that Rome had fallen writes in The City of God: “All earthly cities are vulnerable. Men build them and men destroy them. At the same there is the City of God which men did not build and cannot destroy and which is everlasting”. It certainly seems to me that the Almighty is humbling the American people at this time. America has no covenantal claim as some might suggest. Malcolm Muggeridge in The End of Christendom, writes: “Let us rejoice that we see around us on every hand the decay of institutions and instruments of power…For it is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting…that Christ’s hand reaches out sure and firm”. May the Lord God in His mercy be pleased to revive the evangelical church with truth and discernment in these days…and to be prepared for dark days ahead.

I thoroughly agree with you. Similar to the Americans many Germans in the thirties, including so called Christians, voted for Hitler because he said and did things that pleased them just as Trump is doing. They found out later when it was too late how evil he was and the Americans will find out later how evil Trump is. Satan is cunning, a liar and a deceiver and he has been hard at work during this election.

No matter how much you may not like Trump he is way better than the alternative if for no other reason (and there are many others) than that the next President will appoint up to 5 new Supreme Court judges. Christians just shouldn’t vote for HC.

Thanks John. Of course I never said Christians should support the immoral liberal Clinton. That goes without saying. But for similar reasons, neither should we shill for the immoral liberal Trump. And I have already dealt repeatedly with this rather tiresome Supreme Court objection, including in the article above! But I will once more:

Since when do SCOTUS appointees become the ultimate determination of Christian moral action here? And given that Trump has said his pro-abort sister would make a wonderful SCOTUS judge, why in the world should I put any faith in him? If you think he is so trustworthy on this, you might have a word with some of the Mrs Trumps. And he is, after all, a lifelong liberal, Democrat supporter, and friend of the Clintons. I might as well be told I must back Ahab to prevent Jezebel from appointing bad judges. Sorry, but the Christian support of the immoral pagan Trump is doing just as much to destroy Christianity in America as any Clinton judge appointments ever will.

So, Bill are you advocating that Christians should not vote at all in the Presidential elections? Ok I can understand that. But many of my evangelical Christian friends in the USA are strongly of the view that ” Donald Trump, however imperfect he has been, is the answer to Christians’ prayers to raise up leadership that will put Constitutional and moral justices on the bench, clear out status quo politicians, huge growing oppressive government/agencies, and help get us out of debt and weakening economy and national defence”. Are they wrong?

Thanks John. I must admit that when I have had the same tired objection thrown my way a hundred times, and I have answered it a hundred times, it gets a bit discouraging when it is once again tossed my way! If you had simply read the comments above you would have seen that I have already addressed this lame canard. So for the umpteenth time: where have I ever said we should not vote? Read this please for the answer to that rather unhelpful non sequitur:

And ditto with your second question. Had you bothered to read any of the 30 or so articles I have already penned about Trump here you would know the answer to that as well. Trump is a lifelong liberal, Democrat supporter, and Clinton buddy who cares only about himself. If anyone thinks a guy like that is going to save America, they are living in make-believe land. Sorry, but I just do not have enough faith to be a Trumpite. I am not that gullible or politically naive sorry.

I do agree with you about the state of Evangelicalism in all this but I’ve known for months I couldn’t vote for either of them.

Though I’m ‘never trump’ I am concerned about the number of my friends that are going over to Hillary and wonder if there is a concise – though it can’t be short – list (link?) I can give them. Not just Benghazi/Isis/emails but her as enabler/murderer/corrupt/anti-life plus the fairly sure prospect of her plans re religious freedom. I just think they should know who they’ll be voting for.

Thanks Margaret. Since Hillary is another cultural Marxist in the same Alinsky mould as Obama, the case again her is the same as the case against him. I would have many articles here on Obama of course. And there would be hundreds of articles on Hillary out there in cyber space. Here is just one of them:

I wish to respond the remarks of Melody above ( Oct 10, 2016 at 3:15 am)
How do you know that Bill spends all his time behind the safety of his computer? Clearly you do not know the man to make such a presumptuous remark. What is weird is street preachers who rant and rave but who have no grace and no evidence that they have made any impact on society except to convince people that Christians are a load of nutters.

With regard to the argument that God can use strange instruments to bring about his purpose I have heard Trump compared to Samson, a Biblical character often cited as a deeply flawed human being. But Samson is listed among the heroes of men of faith in Hebrews 11:32. He is seen as a type of Jesus Christ.[1] Can that be said of Trump? Is it really realistic to suppose that Trump, like Samson, bringing down the temple, will bring crashing down the whole edifice of the corrupt Capitol Hill ? To believe that really does require faith- blind faith. If Christians think that Trump is going to be any more sympathetic towards them than Clinton they had better view this. [2]
[1]http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=32391&forum=36&start=20
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR9EQobGlhQ

Trump’s “christianity’ seems to extend to being prayed over ‘in the spirit’ by Kenneth Copeland and a bunch of other prosperity ‘name it and claim it’ heretics. That says a lot all by itself as to what sort of ‘ally’ to the American Church he will prove to be if elected.
Certainly the onslaught of brain-numbing ignorance, insult and idiocy from these evangelical Trumpites does beg the question whether they have exposed an uncomfortable reality that they represent a growing evangelical movement that actively despises biblical standards for ordinary Christian piety, faith and practice.

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